


watching the world burn together

by cantfoolajoker (lichmutual)



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Accomplice Ending (Persona 4), Adachi Gets Beat Up, Bad End Yu and Bad End Akira Made Some Bad Choices And Reflect On Them, Canon-Typical Violence, Deal With Yaldabaoth Ending (Persona 5), Light Angst, M/M, Persona 4 and Persona 5 Take Place At The Same Time I Guess, Post-Canon, Slight OOC But It's The Bad Ends So
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:00:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22265245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lichmutual/pseuds/cantfoolajoker
Summary: Yu has made some mistakes in life, though he would not say trusting Akira was one of them.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira/Narukami Yu, Persona 4 Protagonist/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 6
Kudos: 64





	watching the world burn together

There was fog covering all of Japan.

Most had grown used to it in the few months it had taken to properly roll in and settle. At first, there had been questioning and worry, wondering why the weather conditions never changed. Slowly, it turned to neutrality, finding ways to adapt and work around the hazardous fog. Then it became acceptance, a fact of life now that there was always something inhibiting the vision of the citizens as they went about their daily lives.

Sometimes, people saw funny things in the fog. Some say they saw bones. Others say they saw pools of blood that were gone the next time they looked. The sky cast a red color regardless of where one was, though the fog damped it, the harshness of the reality of the situation hidden behind ignorance.

Yu Narukami swore he saw it too, though he assured himself he was just paranoid. His glasses had stopped working against the fog since he left Inaba; he was only armed with the light on his phone that couldn’t break the thick atmosphere, but it provided him comfort. Something to ease the constant worry he felt.

He was pretty certain he’d made a mistake. He’d burned the letter. He didn’t know why he did, quite frankly.

Was it a hope that Adachi would have done the right thing? A foolishness in trusting someone who didn’t show an ounce of trust in him? 

…Maybe the Phantom Thieves could steal Yu’s heart. They were a hot topic of the city since he’d returned. Their image was plastered across every television screen, something new to associate with televisions in general now for him since every channel seemed to be talking about them.

The boy at the cafe had been pleasant in informing him of their deeds. From taking down evil teachers to even stopping the Yakuza, they were considered heroes.

“They even stopped the guy running for prime minister,” Kurusu— that was what his name tag called him— said, pouring Yu another cup of tea. “Masayoshi Shido? Whatever his name was. The guy was a total scumbag, amiright?” 

The smile on his face was incredibly pleasant. Maybe even casual would describe it.

“They sound really cool,” Yu answered, a stutter in his voice as he picked up his teacup with two hands. He worried his shakiness would have caused him to drop it otherwise had he not. 

Kurusu furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes focusing on Yu carefully. “Is something bothering you, Narukami-san?” 

Yu quickly shook his head, pulling the cup away from his lips quickly as he swallowed. “No, no, I’m fine,” he assured him, lying through his teeth with a smile.

Kurusu hummed, swaying as he took in his answer almost, and the smile returned to his face. “If you say so!” he chirped in response, moving down the counter to clean up the dishes that had been left by another customer.

Akira Kurusu was a unique individual from Yu’s observations. He didn’t have any friends. He always spoke with this cheerful air to him, almost forced and stale yet that was what the whole world felt like these days. He held an air of confidence to him like he knew more than others, yet he never talked down to people. It was like he always had something up his sleeve, a joker to win a game of War.

Yu also felt a kindred spirit in him, though maybe that part of him was yearning for something normal in his life now. He lived in fear of the next time his phone would ring. He felt he had no control in his life anymore.

“Why do you say that?”

Yu paused, jerking from his thoughts. Had he said that out loud?

Kurusu gave him a curious look, though his eyes gave away that he didn’t feel one way or another in the situation. 

“U-Uh,” Yu started, trying to recollect himself in a timely manner, “It’s just- a lot.”

Kurusu focused on him, quiet, calculating. Then he smiled, eyes closing as he did so.

“If you want, you can just tell me. I may be able to put in a word with the Phantom Thieves for you,” he told him, a fake sweetness to his voice that made Yu feel like he’d eaten some bad candy.

Yet Yu ate it all up anyway, regardless of the sick feeling he felt. The desperate need for some form of social connection outweighed the bad feeling he had.

“I just have some problems with a guy,” Yu started.

“Mhm. Like harassment problems?”

“I guess you could say so.”

“You know if he does it to anyone else or just you?”

“He does it to other people,” Yu said, voice hitting a soft note as he glanced down at his drink.

Kurusu hummed. “You have a full name for this guy?” he asked, pulling his phone out casually and opening it up. 

Yu hesitated. Kurusu picked his head up and peered over the artificial light casting on his face, a shadow casting from his bangs that made him appear more ominous than his original cheerful attitude.

Before Yu could answer, his phone went off, and his whole body froze up.

It’d just been sitting idly on the counter next to him where he always set it down, though he knew who it was. He didn’t know whether it was better or worse he and Kurusu were the only two people in the cafe at the time. He couldn’t make his body react anymore, his blood having run cold as the sweat on the back of his neck.

Kurusu’s eyes darted between Yu and his phone, and finally, he stepped forward and picked up Yu’s phone for him, reading the name on the caller identification.

“Tohru Adachi?”

Yu opened his mouth to respond, but no words fell out. 

Kurusu hummed and pulled his own phone out to quickly type the name in before answering the call on Yu’s phone. He didn’t say anything though, just simply stood there, typing in on his own phone and breathing. 

Yu could hear Adachi’s voice on the other side of the line, but Kurusu held a focused and straight face, unamused and unanswering to what he was saying. It was like he was attempting to wait him out in silence until he hung up— which, he did, after a painful few minutes with no response from Kurusu.

He returned his phone to him after that, setting it back down where it had been before. “You shouldn’t have to worry about him anymore,” Kurusu told him, a familiar smile returning to his face like nothing had just happened. “The Phantom Thieves will take care of it.”

Yu didn’t know whether to take his word for it or not, though he trusted his new friend. He trusted all his friends.

He did, however, have an odd dream that night. The blood and the bones he swore he saw around Tokyo felt familiar, along with the pulsating walls like he was inside something living. There was a figure at the end of the hallway dressed in all black, with gloves as red as the blood around them.

The figure had a foot pressed to the head of whoever he was targeting, and Yu found himself standing back, unable to intervene. He couldn’t pretend he was a good person anymore. Not after he had let a killer walk free.

Upon retrieving what he wanted, the figure stood up straight and paused. He reeled his foot back and kicked the man on the ground square in the chest, causing a choking sound to echo along the walls. The figure didn’t pay any mind though, turning around and examining the gun in his hands before looking up to see the audience watching him.

Yu felt his breath catch in his throat. He recognized the curve of jaw, unruly black hair, and the same fake smile he always saw the boy in the cafe wear even with the mask on.

It wasn’t even like Kurusu minded either. He made a gun shape with his hand and connected his index finger to his temple before pulling it outward and winking, a confident and reassuring pose being the last thing Yu saw before he woke up.

Yu didn’t know whether it was proper to confront Kurusu about it when he went to the cafe that day. He had worried about it halfway there, though his focus traveled elsewhere as he swore he saw towering rib cage structures that didn’t disappear this time around when he could find some semblance of sight in the fog. 

When he entered Leblanc, Kurusu was the only one there, with a cup of tea still hot sitting where Yu normally sat.

Upon sitting down, Adachi’s gun was set down next to it.

“I told you they would do the job,” Kurusu told him, smiling. “He should be of no bother anymore.”

Yu gulped. He let his hands carefully caress the teacup in order to feel some semblance of warmth in the cold atmosphere.

“Do I owe anything?” he finally asked.

Kurusu laughed. “No, no, that’s not how this works,” he assured him, leaning his hip against the counter. “The Phantom Thieves help people in need. People who step out of line get punished,” he explained, though Yu wondered what constituted as stepping out of line in the first place.

“Besides,” he added on, “hopefully you understand why nobody wants to be in the position of blackmail. I think it’s best you don’t talk about what you saw.”

_He saw me too._

“Alright,” Yu said quietly, bringing his drink up to take a long sip.

“Oh, also, you can call me Akira,” the boy added on with ease, ignoring the surprised noise Yu made as he struggled not to choke on his drink at the sudden change in formalities. 

“Thank you, Akira,” Yu responded, and the two met eyes, with Akira giving him a more genuine smile and Yu returning it.

Yu felt a kindred spirit in Akira Kurusu. Maybe it was related to them being Persona users. Maybe it was because they both had made mistakes.

Yu kept that in mind as he sat at an interrogation table, one more cold than the holding cell he had been in back in Inaba. The man in front of him had introduced himself as Sanada Akihiko, a police officer working for a special area of the government only referred to as the Shadow Operatives. 

Yu didn’t trust cops anymore after what he’d been through.

“You were in Inaba when the telephone line murders took place, correct?” Sanada asked, looking at the papers in front of him before looking up at Yu.

“Mmmmhm.”

“Was there anything strange or off that you noticed?”

“No, sir.”

“What about the fog? Was there anything weird that happened when it came?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” Sanada shuffled his papers. “It says disappearances of students happened at the same time, and usually students came back after a heavy fog.”

Yu shrugged. “Can’t say I know much,” he answered.

“Did you know these students?”

Yu hummed, eyes glancing over the sheet in front of him. Amagi Yukiko. Tatsumi Kanji. Kujikawa Rise. Shirogane Naoto. “Yeah, I know them.”

Sanada looked like he was struggling. “Would you care to detail your relationships with them?”

“They’re my friends,” Yu informed him, shrugging his shoulders again.

Exhaling hard through his nose, the man collected his papers and sat them down. “Alright then,” Sanada started, sitting back and meeting Yu’s eyes. “Tell me about how you’re doing here then.”

“The fog is just as bad as in the countryside,” Yu answered with ease.

“Have you seen anything weird in the fog?”

“I’ve seen like, bones and blood and stuff.”

Sanada paused, and then he took his pen and wrote what he’d said down. Shit, he wasn’t trying to give him an actual answer.

“How frequently do you see that?”

“Eh,” Yu gave a wavy hand, “I either see it or I don’t.”

Sanada looked like he was just shy of rolling his eyes at that answer. “What about the Phantom Thieves? Any opinions on them?”

Yu felt himself hesitate, a weakness in his well kept answers that Sanada noticed.

“Have you been helped by them?” he pressed, watching Yu like a hawk.

 _Yes, I have._ “No,” Yu responded, shaking his head. “I’ve seen them on television a lot is all.”

Sanada watched him carefully, almost as if the two were stalemated. Yu could tell Sanada didn’t want to give up, but Yu was equally willing to draw this out.

He wasn’t going to sell Akira out. He didn’t know why he wouldn’t; was it a foolish hope?

Akira trusted him with his identity. The least he could do was extend that trust in turn.

Sanada finally let him go after another hour of back and forth. He was talking with someone on the phone when he had left, frustrated about nothing of value coming out of Yu’s interrogation.

Akira greeted him outside the building with a smile, quick to grab his hand due to the intensity of the fog making it hard to even see another living being. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, lead the way,” Yu responded in kind, and he squeezed his hand in turn, a smile of his own coming over his features.

There was a fog all over Japan.

Akira knew however of one point in the city of Tokyo that saw over it all, a platform above the thick mist that allowed them to see for miles.

He wanted to show Yu the view, and Yu could see why. The fog covered the reality of the world, where the sky was a deep red color regardless of the time of day and there were pillars of bone sprouting through the city. Even the tallest buildings that made it over the fog were covered in a pulsating flesh, with veins lining through it and making the patrons inside unable to see out. 

The people living in the fog though only saw what they thought was normal Tokyo, not the mess the duo was seeing above the city.

“It’s all fucked,” Akira told him, slumping to sit next to him and allow his legs to dangle off the spiraling edge.

“It’s certainly not very pretty,” Yu agreed, focusing on the horizon line.

“Y’know, I’m kinda glad my friends don’t have to see this,” Akira admitted.

“What happened to them?”

“Eh,” Akira shrugged. “They’re not here anymore.”

“Ah.”

The two sat in silence, with Akira leaning against Yu as they studied the world below them.

“Do you ever regret what you did?” Yu finally asked, turning to look at Akira as he picked his head off his shoulder and looked thoughtful.

“I don’t think so,” Akira finally answered. “I don’t think I would want to exist in a world where others could have control over me again. At least this way I’m the one with control over everyone else if someone has to be in control.”

Yu nodded in understanding. “I don’t think I regret it either,” he admitted.

Akira perked an eyebrow at that. “Really?”

“If I did, then I would regret meeting you,” Yu told him, finding himself confident in his answer, “If the world was gonna end anyway, I’d much rather end it with you.”

“How romantic,” Akira responded sarcastically, bumping their shoulders together and laughing.

Neither of them knew when their time together would end— that wasn’t something they even wanted to think about really, allowing the fog to take over that aspect of the situation for them. Though, despite that, they found themselves enjoying watching it all burn down together, two kindred souls making mistakes until the very end.

**Author's Note:**

> so i wrote this because i wasn't able to get the idea out of my head after i made a thought piece over akira's bad end self a few days ago. hopefully i can finish my other wips now that i've gotten this out of my head! lol
> 
> i am genuinely curious though what people think of these interpretations of bad end yu and akira. minus the obvious romantic note, these were how i settled on portraying them since i didn't want to necessarily overwrite all of their original character and say the reason why they chose those endings was because they were always evil. since this was going to veer into ooc territory due them compromising their morals anyway, i wanted to try and find a reason within their base character as to why they would do such a thing. you can leave a comment on this work or send me an ask on tumblr (also cantfoolajoker there too) since i'm interested to hear peoples' opinions.


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